Adhering to the principles of corporate social responsibility, KIIS donates considerable part of its income to finance academic social research projects, including academic research works of professors, postgraduate students and students of NaUKMA Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies. Each year KIIS awards two Swafford scholarships (named after Michael Swafford who was a co-founder of KIIS and made a lot for KIIS establishing and development) to students of NaUKMA Master Program in sociology. KIIS supports open research data bank (created in collaboration with NaUKMA Faculty of Social Sciences and Social Technologies), providing financial support to academic journal “Sociology: Theory, Methods, Marketing”, publishing academic books at own expense.

Michael Swafford (1947-2001)

In August 2001 our friend Michael Swafford passed from life. He was a person who made a lot to set up and develop sociological studies in former USSR countries, especially in Russia. He organized a first round of Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, which is one of the most often used sociological databases in Russia and can be considered as a perfect example of methodological work. In 1992 Michael helped to transform our research center into a joint Ukrainian-American research company - Kyiv International Institute of Sociology - and made a great impact on the development of KIIS. But the main thing which he helped to perform was an implementation of methodology standards. Michael sent us materials – video records of Michael Haney’s lectures for interviewers with the examples of interviewing procedure recorded in Moscow - which helped us to train people to create the first team of interviewers who performed surveys using face-to-face method in Ukraine.

With the Michael’s assistance, a lot was done to design randomized sample for Ukraine. Michael helped to improve and correctly describe it. Also he consulted us on data analysis. All in all, he helped us to improve all phases of conducting survey.

Volodymyr I. Paniotto, General Director of KIIS, regularly gives courses of lectures on the methods of collecting data and sample design for NaUKMA students, so the experience gained from the work with Michael is spreading and still influencing the process of sociology development in Ukraine.

Michael Swafford scholarship

Michael Swafford scholarship is awarded annually to the first grade student of the NaUKMA Master Program in Sociology, who achieved the highest aggregate mark according to results of studying certain sociology courses on Bachelor's program, the list of which is defined by KIIS directors.

Scholarship is also awarded to one of the second grade students of the NaUKMA Master Program in Sociology, who achieved the highest aggregate mark according to results of studying certain sociology courses during the first year of master program. The list of subjects which are taken into account is also defined by KIIS directors.

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